The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) encourages grant applications for research on the role
of diet composition in energy balance. This announcement is made together with 8 other components of the National Institutes
of Health (NIH).*

Obesity is associated with numerous serious and chronic diseases, including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, sleep
apnea, and certain forms of cancer. Although an imbalance in energy consumption and expenditure is required to promote inappropriate
weight gain, the relative contributions of each to the burgeoning obesity epidemic remain in dispute. An important gap in
knowledge concerns the role of diet composition in energy balance.

Potential areas of research interest include: the impact of diets varying in levels of protein, carbohydrate, fat, phytochemicals,
or ethanol on appetite, food selection and intake, and energy expenditure; the effect of diets differing in glycemic index,
dietary variety, food volume, or nutrient density on appetite, caloric intake, nutrient absorption, weight, metabolomic profiles,
and body composition both short- and long-term; the impact of diet composition on neuroendocrine, gastrointestinal, and other
factors that may impact energy balance; the impact of diets differing in macronutrient composition on psychological/behavioral
function, bone, renal function, cardiovascular disease, and cancer risk; the impact of food components such as conjugated
linoleic acid or calcium on energy balance, body composition, and disease risk; genomic and epigenomic factors underlying
individual or population differences in response to diet composition that relate to chronic disease prevention; brain imaging
studies in humans and non-human primates to assess positron emission tomography, functional magnetic resonance, or cerebral
blood flow imaging responses to specific dietary constituents; and life-stage, racial/ethnic, and gender-related factors underlying
response to diet composition, including studies in children, adolescents, and adults of various ages.